Marcus wanted me to own an LLC to cover my own liability and taxes. He owned the product and location. NOT until I paid him ALL the money would I own it. Kind of like a lease to own deal.
I did not have money or assets, I still don't. That was done out of friendship.
So, ta da.
Example

Dumb fuck: Hey Ken has a car!!

Me: it's a buy here pay here.

Dumb fuck: well I'll just take your car.

Me: it got reposessed.

Dumb Fuck: well you must have owed it at some point.

Me: Nope, I didn't own it till ipaid all of it, I had to hand it over cause I could not pay!

Dumb fuck: you're hiding assets!!

Me: dumb fuck, you're such a dumb fuck!

Now, look at that sample. What does it make you think? Tax dodge? Hiding assets? Lying to the community? More? Tell me in the comments below.

More to come from the very emails of #ConManKen to the man that's suing him. And no Kenny, you'll need a lot more than $250 to pay the man off.

Part of the unusual reply from Whitman is that Marcus posted on social media that the deal to sell the store to Whitman got Marcus and his business partner out of the lease for the store; i.e. Marcus and Sears were no longer responsible for the lease and had it transferred to Whitman.

Whitman also claimed that he his credit was damaged by the Kickstarter projects, but nothing Kickstarter gets reported to any credit reporting agency, so unless Whitman told the landlord that he had raised all kinds of money and not delivered, the landlord would not know.

I do have a call in to the Property manager for the building that Little Monster Comics is in to ask about the lease, if there is one on the spot for the store.

I also asked Marcus about buying the note that is reported to be owned on the store, and Marcus threw a fit and wouldn't talk about any note, leading me to believe that there may not be any note and it is just a story being told to hide the real owner of the store and its assets.

I sent this to the landlord for the space the comic book store is in. I do not understand why the landlord would just transfer the lease to Whitman, Whitman and Marcus put it out in social media that Marcus had no more liability for the lease, but recently Whitman says that Marcus still held the lease.

I found out the landlord by using google maps to go to the address, and going along RT-27 until it was in front of the strip mall, and reading the FOR RENT sign and number that showed in the photo. I also looked up the property records. The building is appraised at $400K, which seems reasonable for the number and size of the space there.

Copy of my contact form To Eagle Realty Development:

Hi,I have not had a chance to call yet, but the space I was wondering about it is one with Little Monsters and Comics, next door to the Subway at 4440 S Highway S RT-27.One thing I did notice and was wondering about is that the store has been sold twice (announced on social media) over the last year or so; once by Marcus King to Ken Whitman, then Marcus King took back the store from Ken Whitman several weeks ago, and then the store was resold to Jessica Hunter.All of this was posted on social media by the three of them.

Marcus King also has a business partner, James A Sears, but appears to have no comment on these transaction. James (Jim) A Sears was the store owner a few years ago and the one I expect was the original lessor for the space.

The questions I have are:

1: Does the store have a lease in that space? Is the space available? If not, how much longer is the lease run for on that space and when would it be available?

2: It was posted on social media that the lease had been transferred to Ken Whitman, which I was surprised to see since most landlords would only allow a subletting and not let the original lease holder off of the lease. Did your company really allow the outright change of the lessor or is there simply no lease on the space and it is on a month to month basis?

The reason I am asking specifically about the space with the comic book store is that I may purchase the note that Marcus King has on the store with the new owner, Jessica Hunter, so one of the things I would need to do is to make sure the store would be able to operate for the duration of the note.

I think what happens in a number of cases, is that the people like Whitman get the money up front, and then they have a choice. They can either do what they said they were going to do and make a profit, maybe 10% to 20%, or they can grab everything for themselves, deliver nothing and get 100%.

Whitman appears to always grab all the money and make 100% minus whatever he had to spend to keep up an appearance of doing work to keep raising more money.

Whitman's pattern of a decade or two shows that when given that choice, Whitman will ALWAYS grab the pile of money for himself and delivers little to nothing. The only reason Whitman ever seems to have for doing any work or delivering anything seems to be to show that some work is being done to others, which he then uses to grab more money.

If you notice, Whitman ran off almost to the moment once he could not get anyone else to fund any more projects.

Jolly mentioned meeting Whitman on site somewhere, I think the closed hotel of Whitman's now exwife's family, and being impressed that work was being done on some movie plot plus Whitman seemed to have truly reformed from his past 'mistakes' in business and appeared sincere in wanting to redeem himself.

As everyone now knows, it was all just a show of contrition to setup the next con, and it is a brilliant con.

Whitman got Jolly to permit the Intellectual Property of Knights of the Dinner Table to be used, and a number of people, myself included, assumed that d20 Entertainment LLC was just a separate LLC setup by Jolly and Company for the project; instead it really was Whitman using the reputation of Jolly and Company to front the whole ponzi scheme without Jolly and Company realizing what was about to happen until it was too late.

Even I was taken in by Whitman's con. Since Jolly and Company was involved, I saw no need to check any further on d20 Entertainment LLC or who was really running the whole project. I also assumed that Kickstarter would only allow a real person or real legal entity that really existed to register as a creator on the site.

Kickstarter bears much blame in all of this, since they allowed a company that never existed to register as a creator plus they transferred the money raise to Whitman's personal bank account. Kickstarter must have known or should have know that d20 Entertainment did not exist because Whitman had to use his personal bank account to get the money since under the newer 'know your customer' bank regulations it would have been impossible for Whitman to open a bank account in the name of a company that did not exist.

When opening a business bank account a bank will always at least check online to make sure the corporation or a dba exists and then make sure they are dealing with an officer or authorized person of the organization.

If I had done the next step and looked at d20 Entertainment LLC and found out it did not exist I would have realized 'something is wrong' and started asking questions.

For a person like Whitman to run something like the Kickstarter projects, Whitman should never have been allowed to ever handle any money; letting Whitman have control of the money would be like leaving alcohol around an alcoholic and being surprised when he ended up drunk.

There was mention of another person that was supposed to hold the funds and control the disbursement of the funds, but Whitman got the money first and never turned anything over the the person that was supposed to have control of the funds.

The genius of the Kickstart project cons is many points:

1: The amount of money is usually too small to do anything about.

2: People do not realize they have been ripped off for more than 60 days, at which point the time to file a dispute with their charge card company for a refund has passed.

3: For larger amounts sent by backers on a project, many people do not have the time to do anything about what happened and are stuck with the outcome.

Desys conduct, particularly the threatening and harassing e-mail messages, strongly suggests dishonesty, poor judgment, and a willingness to misuse the judicial process. Cf. Matter of an Application for Admission to the Bar of the Commonwealth., 378 Mass. 795, 392 N.E.2d 533 (1979). Further, Desy has shown a lack of candor in these proceedings. As the single justice noted, his answers to questions about his background “have been defensive and perfunctory-in effect, a failure to answer.” Indeed, in his brief to this court, he has wholly failed to address the serious questions arising from his dealings with the company. We are left with grave doubt about Desy's present character and fitness to practice law. We resolve that doubt “in favor of protecting the public by denying admission.” Matter of an Application for Admission to the Bar of the Commonwealth, 444 Mass. 393, 397, 828 N.E.2d 484 (2005), quoting Matter of Prager, supra. Having reviewed the entire record, we conclude that Desy has not shown that at this time he “possesses the necessary qualifications to practice law in the Commonwealth.” Matter of Prager, supra.

I saw a number of people and classmates miss passing the bar exam by sometimes only a few points; and a lot of those people were people that needed to pass the exam in order to find work, and only needed a little help to get that extra point or two.

Sometimes some people are able to get a job at a law firm or local DA office but it is conditional on them passing the bar exam to keep their job.

I heard stories of people literally crying in the rest room during the exam because they though it was highly unlikely they were going to pass and when the results were posted, if they showed they had failed, they would be dismissed from their job.

There is also the funny story of someone looking for me just after I took the exam the first time. Apparently, people noticed that I finished the MBE parts in under an hour each. Normally, most people take all three hours for the 100 questions. I didn't think anyone noticed that I finished so early but apparently people did.

The funniest thing is that Ken actually thinks that the same mud he's slinging at Desy regarding the 'disbarment that isn't a disbarment' (which his copypasta even says. If Ken had any reading comprehension, he'd notice that...) will sway a Judge in court.

Here's a hint Ken (and I work for the NYS Court System, so I know a thing or two about this): The judge isn't going to care about Desy's 'disbarment'. Its irrelevant. And bringing it up will only make you seem more dishonest.

The judge will decide on facts pertaining to the case. Why? because people with poor reputations or criminal backgrounds (I'm not saying Louis Desy applies to that but Ken sure is) can still be victims of a crime or fraud and they can and should seek redress.

I can't wait to see how this plays out. I'm actually strongly considering taking a trip to the courthouse on that day.

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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (thank you Kickstarter) (edit) BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and will soon have some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep shipping shortly in my grubby hands awaiting a review..

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls (and still waiting on dT&T to ship).

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 48, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)